Migrants Found on Luxury Yacht Off Greek Island of Lesbos

Over 800,000 migrants and refugees reached Europe after crossing the Mediterranean Sea since the start of the year, revealed IOM (International Organisation for Migration) on Tuesday.

A wooden boat carrying migrants to the Greek island of Lesbos sank in a storm off Canakkale, the report said, adding that 27 people were rescued.

The boy, aged 2-3 years, was found off the coast of Lesbos fully clothed, including boots, and wearing an orange life jacket, the Greek coast guard said in a statement.

“When it took in more water they tried to return but the boat sank before they could make it back to shore”.

Since the shuttling of refugees from Greece’s islands to the mainland resumed November 6, more than 10,000 people have reached Macedonia, Greek state television reported.

Following Monday’s meeting, the European Union interior ministers also urged Italy and Greece, both countries at the front lines of the migrant flow, to speed up the processing of new arrivals so that they could then be relocated to other European Union countries.

“Must there be another [Alan] for the world to wake up? Humanity is watching from the sidelines”, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on hearing of the latest tragedies. The European Union says that based on the current and ongoing major migrant increase since the current refugee crisis began, they doubt the flow of refugees will slow down prior to 2017.

European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos stressed there was no plan to set up “detention centres” and said the idea was to provide support for people travelling though the Balkans.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Friday many Syrians should get “subsidiary protection”, which carries a one-year renewable residence permit and wouldn’t allow them to bring relatives to Germany for two years.